The door-busting, guns-drawn tactics can have deadly consequences as reporter Radley Balko details. In a 2006 Virginia case a detective pretended to befriend an optometrist whose crime was betting on football games. The optometrist, Sal Culosi, was shot and killed during a SWAT team raid of his house. His last words, uttered to the cop he thought was his friend: "Dude, what are you doing?"

Eight years earlier another SWAT team raid involving suspected gambling in Virginia Beach had claimed the life of a security guard.

His last words: "Why did you shoot me? I was reading a book."

Balko presents examples in which police did not receive search warrants for raids, but took liquor license officials under the guise of checking license issues. His central point is compelling:

"The Fourth Amendment requires that searches be 'reasonable'. If using a SWAT team to make sure a bar isn't serving nineteen-year-olds is a reasonable use of force, it's hard to imagine what wouldn't be."

Let's talk about this story. Anyone have any stories they'd care to share about the use of SWAT teams -- proper or otherwise?